The CBOT was higher to start the day after Russia attacked more Ukrainian export and grain infrastructure in Odesa and the country’s Danube River ports. That rally was extended during the day session as the blistering hot weather over the U.S. Midwest prompted traders to add back weather premia to corn and soybean prices. Wheat futures followed along but lacked much of a fundamental story themselves, except, of course, for the tensions in the Black Sea. Funds were net buyers across the major ag markets but remain cautious exiting profitable shorts in the wheat and corn markets. The Pro Farmer crop tour pegged the Indiana corn yield at 180.89 BPA, below the USDA’s August forecast of 195 BPA and above last year’s tour...
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.